Kick-off workshop: Thinking openly about Egalitarianism

Posted on April 11, 2014

How is egalitarianism negotiated and enacted in marginalized groups? What are the possible egalitarian dimensions of anonymous commentaries on digital fora? How is egalitarianism reflected in questions of gender and sexuality? What are the egalitarian potentials of technology?

These are only a few of the questions raised at the kick-off workshop of the ERC-funded research project “Egalitarianism: Forms, Processes, Comparisons” that took place on June 2nd -3rd 2014 at the House of Literature in Bergen. 24 national and international researchers participated in an intense program, exchanging ideas and research findings related to the ambitious questions of concern to the project.

The broader aim of the first workshop was to facilitate general and open discussion on how to approach the research problem of Egalitarianism, initiating a conversation that will be continued through the five years of the project. Guiding the discussions was an aim to generate multiple ways into the field of Egalitarianism and to open up the many potential conceptual possibilities for research that the concept harbours.

The quest of the Egalitarianism project is to pursue not only tried perspectives but to introduce relatively new issues, perhaps urgent ones, that might concentrate research but which may not have received the attention they deserve given the fact that the current historical moment from most accounts is one of intensive transformation. For many the indications are that the predictions that many advanced concerning the futures of capitalism, for instance, are now at the cusp of their disastrous realization. For others, things are less bleak. New Paths and possibilities for humanity are opening up. If the future is still very uncertain, broadly things are on the improve and egalitarian possibilities that were part of dreams and fantasies have a chance of actualization. Such as well as other opposing views constituted the frame for debate throughout the meetings relating particularly to matters of theoretical perspective.

Programme

Monday 2 June:

09:30-09:45WelcomeWelcome – by Anne-Lise Fimreite, Pro-Rector of the University of Bergen, Chair: Bruce Kapferer

10:45-13:15Session 1: Key Statements of Overviews: Conceptual Frames, Issues and Problems of EgalitarianismJonathan Friedman: Globalizing Processes and Egalitarian ConfigurationsDon Kalb: The Counter-valences of Class in EuropeJoel Robbins: The Egalitarian Spirit of New ChristianitiesAnnelin Eriksen: Gender and Sexualities as Egalitarian ReflectionsAndre Iteanu: Egalitarian Ideology and the Individual as ValueMartin Holbraad: Contemporary RevolutionsMichael Humphrey: New Systems of Control and Corruption as Anti-Egalitarian Technologies